Hello! We are Emilie Gallier and Rajni Shah, two new(ish) staff members. We are both employed one day a week as Researchers with the ATD Lectorate, and we also both co-tutor on the THIRD programme which is a 2 year artistic research program run by the Lectorate. Here follows a short paragraph about what we’re each up to:

Emilie Gallier is a choreographer researcher who lives between Leiden (here) and Les Minières (there in France). She studied the idea of reading in and as performance, in her practice-as-research PhD Reading in Performance, Lire en Spectacle (2021, Centre for Dance Research Coventry University). Her engagement with artistic research through various positions ~ as a researcher, a tutor, a peer, co-editor, (book)worms, gleaner, participant, spectator ~ feeds her endless curiosity for forms of writing and publishing, and with what is active in practices. She is co-founder of Les Minières in Normandy, between two forests, between regenerative agriculture and performing art practices. Emilie works through dance practices in multi-modal settings. She co-develops performances, publications, edible documents, visceral practices, dances, dreams, conversations, and peer exchange within spaces of the stage, the page, telephone, gardens, libraries and studios. She looks forward to continuing practices of reading within and between the garden, the library, living soils and studios of the ATD. 

Rajni Shah (they, them/die, diens) has been making performance since 1999. They are queer, quiet, trans non-binary, and a feminist killjoy. A little history: From 1999-2012 Rajni directed and performed in large-scale visual performances as well as small interventions in public spaces, exploring internal and external geographies, non-linear storytelling, and gift as an opening to conversations with strangers. Between 2013 and 2021, Rajni did a practice-based PhD in listening and performance (at Lancaster University, UK) followed by a two year post-doc at Concordia, during which they helped set up the Acts of Listening Lab, which is situated on the unceded lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation in what is colonially known as Canada. In 2021 they published a book and accompanying print-at-home zines, entitled Experiments in Listening. They are delighted to be here at the ATD developing the listening practices they have been working with over the past ten years.

As members of the Lectorate, we will be working on ATD-wide projects, doing our own research, and supporting the research of others. Look out for us in the ATD Research Month coming up in January!